High Holy Day
It’s Election Day, the “High Holy Day” of American Democracy. We’ve been lining up to vote since before the Constitution, even before the Declaration of Independence. We voted during conflict, even the Civil War. We voted during the last great pandemic, the Spanish Flu of 1918 ( Mr. Trump, not 1917). America is really doing what it does best, letting the citizenry determine the leadership of the nation.
Sure, there’s all of the craziness of the Electoral College. It used to be quaint, a relic of a bygone time that we still respected. After seeing that system supersede the “counted will” of the people twice in the past score of years, I know longer see it as “traditional”. But that debate is for another time. Two Hundred and Seventy is the magic number, the majority that anoints a new President for four years.
We may not know in the next eighteen hours who won the Presidency this round. That’s not the product of some subversion of the process or nefarious motive. No, we are going to have the largest election in American history. By the time early voting closed yesterday, over 100 million people voted for President. In 2016 127 million voted. Today it’s very likely that another fifty million or more will exercise their right. With all of our “arcane” counting methods, that’s going to take some time, perhaps more than a “call” before midnight.
And with all of the talk and nonsense about the Trump team “sending in the lawyers”, it’s really a matter of them saying, “We are losing, what can we do?” Winners don’t talk about lawyers and not counting votes, only Losers do. It’s like the wining football team complaining about the officiating – they don’t really care. I like candidates who Win elections.
Two-Dollar Bills
Speaking of arcane laws, Michigan has one that says you cannot pay drivers to take people to the polls. It’s left over from the 19th century, when “bandwagons,” literally wagons with bands on them, would go down the street handing out two-dollar bills for people to jump on and go vote. It became a mark of dishonor: having a two-dollar bill meant you sold your vote. It also meant you “got on the bandwagon”. It’s why folks stopped using the two-dollar bill.
And one of the great advances of the 19th Century was the use of the “secret ballot”. Before 1884, everyone knew how everyone else voted (thus the guaranteed two-dollars). It was only after 1884 that the vote in most states was secret. And it wasn’t even an American invention – the other name for the “secret” ballot is the Australian ballot.
So if it’s a secret ballot, how do they talk about, “Trump doing better in early voting in Florida than Biden”? The answer is, they only know that John Smith of Sebastian, Florida has voted early. And they know that John Smith is a registered Republican. So the assumption (you know how that goes) is that John Smith voted for Donald Trump. But they don’t really know that, and when they count the votes, they won’t ever know which candidate John Smith actually voted for. What if there are a lot of Republicans who decided that they didn’t want to vote for Trump, and chose someone else?
I voted early, and I’m a registered Democrat. As it turned out, I did vote for Joe Biden (no surprise) but they really don’t know that. So in an election when a number of notable Republicans, including the Lincoln Project folks and the former Governors of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio publicly committed for Joe Biden – who knows?
Vote Early
It’s very strange not to be going to the polls today. In a pandemic world, it made a lot more sense to vote early (not the old Chicago line – “vote early and vote often”). But I will do a “drive-by” of my polling place and maybe a couple of others, just to see how things are going.
Here in Pataskala, we definitely live in “Trump Country”. But our town has the right attitude. Yes Donald Trump will win here, but my neighbors are still waving as they drive by our Biden sign, talking to us on the street, and were “up in arms” when some kids stole our original signs. Maybe they knew what would happen, from two Biden signs we now have five, plus two Biden pumpkins. I’m sure they’ll be glad to see them go, but “they’ll defend to the death our right to say it”.
Random Thoughts
Two last oddities, then you should go VOTE!!!!! The first: remember the “zero year curse”? It was a staple of Eighth Grade American History, that every President elected in a “zero year” after 1840 died in office. It was supposed to be a curse that Tenskwatawa, the brother of Tecumseh, placed on General William Henry Harrison . Harrison was the General when Tecumseh was killed at the battle of Thames River. Harrison, elected President in 1840, caught pneumonia at his own inauguration and died thirty days later.
It held true – Harrison, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, and Kennedy all were elected in a “zero year” and died in office. It wasn’t until 1980 that Ronald Reagan “broke” the curse, and George W. Bush followed suit. It’s 2020 and the curse is long gone – but it was a good story to keep eighth graders involved in class.
And the second oddity has nothing to do with politics, just dogs. It’s the first week of “standard time”, and our dogs don’t get it. Now we are up at five, and they think dinner should be served at four. Buddy, our oldest, and I sat down and had a long talk about railroads, Savings Time and Standard Time, but somehow he didn’t care. He wasn’t waiting another hour for dinner!!!
Have a good day and long night. However it turns out, we are engaged in the process that makes the United States different from many other countries. With all of our problems, we should celebrate this tradition.
And a Biden win would make it even better.
